Uncivil War 

Assessing the threat of widespread civil unrest in our nation

'But when a society is asked to sacrifice, to endure, or to fight, it needs more than procedural values — it needs faith' (Iben Thranholm)
 
As professor of War Studies at Kings College, Dr David Betz has been speaking widely over recent months on the likelihood of civil war occurring in Britain. (You can watch a 30-min introduction here and a 96 minute interview here – with some additional topics featured on the New Culture Forum.)

Dr Betz describes what typically happens when insurgencies or civil war take place, and shows how these actions are actually being carried out aggressively in Britain today (and, extraordinarily, they are being allowed by the Government – both past and present).

Some of Betz’s key points focus on the causes of civil war, and, in contrast, the things that normally protect societies from going this way.

Causes:

• People are becoming more polarised as groups. This can mean that critical thinking is lost – particularly as people tend to adopt the views of their own group, and more so when that group feels powerful.
• ‘Downgrading’ – the majority population feel they are being prejudiced against by those in power.
• Loss of faith in leaders, regarding both their competence and their intentions.

Protections:

Normal ‘bulwarks’ against civil strife (now being eroded) include:

• Wealth: feeling OK financially makes us down-play the negative consequences of any situation.
• Obedience: Britain has been ruled relatively well in the medium past, with relatively low corruption, so people have tended to show trust in their leaders.
• Expectation: life tending to get better for each successive generation.

Most people in the current climate are feeling poorer, less influential and more at risk. 

However, these bulwarks are no longer strong. Most people in the current climate are feeling poorer, less influential and more at risk. Young people are now forced to have lower expectations than their parents due to housing costs, inconvenience of marriage, inability to afford to have children, loss of middle-class jobs, and other factors. And, crucially, there is no longer the trust in our leaders that we once had.
 

What does Civil War look like?

What form would civil war actually take? Would it be similar to scenarios that occurred within the past century in Northern Ireland; in Kosovo; in Gaza; or even as far back as England in the 1640s? It can be difficult to tell for sure. But, historically, there are three stages:

1 'Defensive' – by insurgent actors – organising, planning, propaganda, infiltration of institutions, recruiting 'useful idiots', and so on.
2 'Stalemate' – physical attacks which are often met with equal response from the police. However, there are already insurgent no-go areas in some cities, stable bases and military structures developing (This is possibly the phase in which we are already.)
3 'Offensive' – insurgents growing in strength while the government weakens, falls and concedes (as occurred in Northern Ireland), or insurgents defeated and wholly driven out, as they are seen as too much of a risk.
 

Who are the insurgents?

The Daily Mail reported in 2020 that “Ninety per cent of 43,000 extremists on MI5 watchlist are Islamist terror suspects”. This number is likely to have increased significantly and continues to every day. 43 terrorism extremists would be a worry when attacks have proved so easy to carry out – but 43,000!  As well as these numbers, many more in the Muslim community (though by no means all) are sympathetic to the extremists.  
 

Looking at the current situation, it would not seem totally unreasonable to conclude that the ‘Global Left’ and Islam are already in charge.

However, a civil war consists of two main sides. Looking at the current situation, it would not seem totally unreasonable to conclude that the ‘Global Left’ and Islam are already in charge. In other words, some would say the Revolution has already happened, so the ‘insurgents’ would actually be the indigenous British population. Their ways of working would be legal and democratic, different from other insurgents, and they would need marked determination.

In addition to the internal conflict, there are also external parties that stoke tensions for their own ends. The Soviet Union supposedly encouraged UK Union strikes in the 1970s; other would-be global oppressors (China, Russia) have fomented division in the US in recent times, in attempt to so weaken the nation that nothing is left to oppose them.
 

Clash of Civilisations

 
Part of our blindness to the threat is our refusal to think about the Clash of Civilisations. We naturally see the world from a Western perspective where people feel a general responsibility to be nice to everyone. Many nations, however, do not share these Western altruistic values and their elites do all they can to advance themselves (often while pretending to be friends at the UN).
 
Post Cold-War, one of the strongest definers and glues of current ‘civilisations’ – whether Western, Slavic, Hindu, Sino, etc – is said to be ‘religion’, a key component of culture. Some are more aggressive than others. There are often recurring arguments with neighbouring nations, but the real fault-lines are generally among religions and, as with geology, that’s where the real damage is usually done.
 

Post Cold-War, one of the strongest definers and glues of current ‘civilisations’ is said to be ‘religion’, a key component of culture. 

Western ‘religion’ in the post-Christian world essentially consists of secularism, consumerism, permissiveness, and individualism. This is of course shunned by the true remnant Church, but their voices and concerns are rarely heard.
 
When talking with Indians working in the UK on contract some time back, I noted how they thought Christianity was simply what they observed in their daily lives in Britain, especially given that Hinduism is defined by everyday practices and attitudes in India. I would reply by stating that while Christianity has had a huge and beneficial cultural impact on Britain in the past, real Christianity is very different from what is generally observable in Britain today.
 
T.S. Eliot said: “If you will not have God (and He is a jealous God), you should pay your respects to Hitler or Stalin”. We're seeing that attitude being played out in authoritarian global and national policies.
 
Given its history, true Islamist assertiveness should be no surprise. It believes itself superior to Westernism and will do all it can to spread itself in the world. At one level that’s fine – we all have the right to promote our beliefs if we think them better. But we should do that with openness and without coercion – which is difficult when those beliefs endorse secrecy and the use of force.
In Islam there are two worlds: dar al-Islam (‘territory of Islam’), and dar al-harb (‘territory of war’) – in both of them the whole world is to be ‘converted’, however this is interpreted.
 
The ludicrous multi-level attempts to silence alarms are shameful. Not only that, but there is also some utopian idea that it will all work out for the good, in the best of all possible multicultural worlds (and they will all vote Labour…)
 

Governments have been aware of the current civil threat for decades, and are already preparing for it.

Should it be talked about?

Churchill was often criticised before the Second World War as being a warmonger (or even for simply trying to rescue his career) in pointing out the German threat. But he didn’t want war any more than anyone else trying to forget the horrors of the previous world war. He just cared enough to speak up and it helped us prepare. Where were his critics when the bombs started falling?
 
Governments have been aware of the current civil threat for decades, and are already preparing for it – not by removing the threat but by trying to remove the indigenous resistance – planning and deploying control systems (censorship, persecution of dissenters, identity cards, central bank digital currencies, etc).

This alone is actually treasonable, but is regularly excused as being vaguely for a higher purpose, some undefined virtue. The ‘defensive’ stage of attack is part of this – where the morale of the majority population is ground down by economic collapse fuelled by over-hyped eco-concerns, denigration of its good history, advancement of false privilege ('Islamophobia' definitions, etc), and betrayal of its once-trusted institutions (parliament, judiciary, police, industry, health, CoE). All of this is not helped by the rival globalist and CCP (China) threats.
 

Help or Hinder?

In the US they have finally adopted a plan to make their country safer from slightly different threats (mass illegal immigration from Latin America, the Communist Party of China, the opioid Fentanyl, etc) – but the USA has seen unprecedented domestic resistance – even to the deporting of illegal immigrant felons. Some have even condoned political murder (the killing of Charlie Kirk). The false-virtue is so addictive!
 

Thankfully, some Christians are beginning to speak up – perhaps feeling the necessity to be brave.

In Britain the proportional threat is much bigger and if a Reform government starts deporting people some see this as paving the way for massive attacks (‘Stage 3’). It feels crazy to talk about a coming civil war in Britain (despite what was experienced in N. Ireland), but people increasingly are, and it’s largely based on hard evidence of how these things have happened elsewhere.

Perhaps the Hungarian approach is the most practical option – moving would-be attackers out. Sweden is actively doing this where it can. The recent keenness for flag-showing is a key civilisational marker and the reaction to it a demonstration of who will support whom, if it comes to civil disorder.
 

Engaging and praying for the nation

Thankfully, some Christians are beginning to speak up – perhaps feeling the necessity to be brave.  Committed Catholic Connor Tomlinson has recently written on The Imminent Islamic Terror Plot Against Britain. Dr Joseph Boot of Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity has ably commented on the politics of civil war.
 
In the US, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development recently called for a million people to pray for the nation every week until July 4^th 2026. This was endorsed by President Trump, who also gave a remarkable address from the Museum of the Bible, in which he said, among other things, that “When faith is weak in America, America is weak.”.

The word of God goes further, stating: “If my people, who are called by my name, humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (2 Chron 7:14)

The church must stop pretending faith is a private matter. In times of cultural collapse, a silent church is not neutral — it is complicit.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer resisted Nazi tyranny when so many church leaders (one of Hitler's biggest concerns) caved in. Eric Metaxas, in his book Religionless Christianity pertinently notes; “The church must stop pretending faith is a private matter. In times of cultural collapse, a silent church is not neutral — it is complicit.”
 
We need to recognise that determination, spiritual strength and physical courage are needed. Like the men of Issachar, we must look to God to understand the times and know what we should do.
 
“My job every single day is actively trying to stop a revolution” martyred US activist Charlie Kirk once said. “This is where you have to try to point them toward ultimate purposes and toward getting back to the church, getting back to faith, getting married, having children. That is the type of conservatism that I represent, and I’m trying to paint a picture of virtue, of lifting people up, not just staying angry.”
 
Therein is the ultimate answer and comfort, for us all. Being lifted up, into the everlasting arms of the Father – the only One who can truly save us in any coming hour of need – trusting in Him, resting in Him, living for Him – our mighty God, truly our all in all.
 
And at the heart of heaven is, “the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” (Rev 22:2)

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